Pyne’s porky pies revealed by Uni of Western Australia

Posted by Kim Carr5sc on September 24, 2014

Joint release with Amanda Rishworth

Analysis of the University of Western Australia’s 2016 fee schedule reveals the Minister for Education is consistently misleading young Australians when he says students will pay only 50 per cent of the cost of their university education.

In fact, UWA’s recent submission to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, taken together with the Government’s proposed funding rates for Commonwealth Supported Places from 1 January 2016, reveals students will pay as much as 89.86 per cent of the total cost of their university degree.

This is despite Christopher Pyne gleefully assuring the Australian people in Question Time today:

“The reality is our reforms will mean that students will be required to pay 50 per cent of the cost of their education across the university sector and they're currently on average paying 40 per cent.”

[CHRISTOPHER PYNE – HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES QUESTION TIME – 24 SEPTEMBER 2014]

UWA yesterday announced it would introduce an annual student fee of $16,000 from 2016 for all of its Commonwealth Supported Places for undergraduate studies, encompassing Arts, Commerce, Design and Science.

But since the Commonwealth will contribute only $1,805 a year for Commerce under the Government’s five-tiered system, students will have to meet 89.96 per cent of the costs of their degree.

The news isn’t much better for Arts students, who will have to pay 72.66 per cent of the total cost of their degree.

Since the Government’s Budget of broken promises, Christopher Pyne has repeatedly asserted that students will be asked to pay only 50 per cent of the cost of their university education:

“The reforms to universities that we are proposing will lift the contribution that students make to their education, from 40 per cent to 50 per cent.”

[CHRISTOPHER PYNE – HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES QUESTION TIME – 4 SEPTEMBER 2014]

Either he doesn’t know his own policy, or has been trying to conceal the true impact of his Government’s unfair higher education legislation.

Christopher Pyne needs to admit he’s got the sums wrong and scrap his dog of a policy.

Total Student Contributions based on the University of Western Australia’s fee structure: